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As predicted I felt totally out of sync this morning when I woke up. My body had been expecting a Monday routine, but no, it was up early for my strength DVD - Davinas 3 30 Minute Workouts Pump Section. I haven't done this DVD in ages and really enjoyed it. It was made tougher due to the DOMS I was experiencing pretty much all over. I don't get DOMS very often but it must have been due to the strength on Sunday and Cardio yesterday.

After I done that I went and made myself a huge Chocolate Cherry Green Monster with loads of spinach, frozen cherries, scoop of chocolate whey, vanilla rice milk and water. This was just wonderful, I love Green Monsters so much!


Work hasn't been too bad, I have no meetings for the rest of the week which makes a huge change so I can really catch up with my to do list.

Lunch was a bowl of Asian Chicken Soup from my frozen stash. I'm trying to demolish the giant pile of frozen stuff in my freezer as its getting rather crowded in there!


Followed by 2 juicy pears.


Mid afternoon I snacked on an apple and two babybel light.


After work I popped to the supermarket for some more grocery shopping, considering I'm trying to eat stuff from the freezer I'm still buying a load of fresh stuff! I really need to try and focus on getting my shopping bills down a bit too. Its just very difficult when you try and eat a clean, healthy diet and you like experimenting with food, if I was happy to eat ready meals and crisps I'd save a fortune! But I wouldn't be very healthy and sometimes you can't put a price on that!

Anyway, speaking of spending too much money on food, when I got home my first order from iHerb had arrived!


My wish list this month had included maca powder, chia seeds and nutritional yeast and iHerb seemed like the best place to be able to order all three 'Superfood' products. I've read so much about them on other blogs I really wanted to give them a try. Heres a brief description for anyone who hasn't come across these before -

Maca Powder - powdered maca root, has been used in South America for years to help general nourishment and healing. Is nutrient packed and can support the body to deal with stress. I've seen it used on other blogs in smoothies, porridge, sprinkled on apples with cinnamon etc.

Chia Seeds - high in omega 3 fatty acids and an array of other nutrients also very high in fibre. Can slow the absorption of sugar in to the blood stream. I've seen this used in numerous blogs added to porridge / oatmeal and smoothies

Nutritional Yeast - good source of protein and vitamins, especially Vit B12. Can be used in a similar way to parmesan cheese, sprinkled on popcorn or mixed with hummus and water to make a humnut sauce for vegetables.

I can't wait to try them all out!

For dinner I continued with trying to use up some frozen stuff so I had some defrosted and microwaved homemade chilli with a big pile of salad and topped it with a sprinkling of nutritional yeast so I could have a taste.

I couldn't really taste it that much but it has a nutty cheesy flavour. I can see me trying this in a few different dishes. For desert I whipped up a bowl of tofu vanilla pudding.


Photographed on my new butterfly tea towel!
Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Have you tried maca powder, chia seeds or nutritional yeast? Can you give me any ideas for recipes I can use them in? Hope that if today was your first day back at work after the Easter break it wasn't too bad! Hope you've all had a good Tuesday! x

I started the day with another cup of warm warm and freshly squeezed lemon juice before doing my Davina DVD plus extra back and chest exercises. As usual the lunges and squats killed me and I was nice and sweaty by the finish!

For breakfast I made a smoothie containing frozen blueberries, scoop of vanilla whey, hazelnut and almond rice milk, a little water and a tablespoon of pumpkin and sunflower seeds for a hint of nuttiness. I topped the smoothie with a few seeds as well.


This was delicious but I found that I missed my spinach and the added bulk it gives to smoothies. Just shows how hooked I am on green monsters now!

I headed in towards work dropping my car off at the garage for its service and MOT, luckily it wasn't too bad but it still needs a few things looking at at some point in the next few months like brake pads and new tyres.

Mid morning we had a little get together at work for someone who is leaving. They had some supermarket bought scones thick with butter to dish out, and naturally I declined - if I'm going to have a treat I'll have something I really fancy. In fact I've come to find that stuff like that just doesn't do it for me anymore. Has anyone else found that too? Since I've started eating more 'clean', things like shop bought cakes, scones, crisps, cream cakes etc just don't bother me, I can take them or leave them. I think its cause I know they won't be doing me any favours or nourishing my body. However a homemade wholemeal scone with dates and walnuts warm and covered in butter and jam would have me very happy! I think I tend to crave better quality versions of the stuff that I used to gorge myself on, instead of gallons of some low fat cheapy vanilla ice cream I'd rather have a small portion of extra delicious Ben and Jerrys. Talk about having champagne taste on a lemonade budget!

For lunch I had a kale and chickpea salad. As I now know that kale in green monsters doesn't float my boat I was trying to think up another way to use it. I stir fried it off for a minute or so in some garlic olive oil then mixed it with some chick peas, cucumber, red onion and grated carrot followed by some sea salt.


This was really tasty, it was the first time that I've eaten chick peas raw as well and they were delicious so I'll be using them a lot more in the future. I followed my salad with my new addiction - chopped apple with maca and cinnamon, yum! I totally cover the apple with the maca and cinnamon mix, delicious!


Mid afternoon I had half a pot of cottage cheese with some nakd orange infused raisins. These were also lovely, totally loving all the nakd flavoured raisins!


I had a semi late one at work then headed home via the shops to pick up some groceries for the weekend. Why is it that my shopping list always goes out the window when I get to the shop? I ended up getting a random jar of apple sauce and some cashews - I can't help myself when I see stuff that takes my fancy.

I had a chicken breast defrosted in the fridge to be used up so for dinner I made a quick and tasty stir fry with Pak choy, brocolli, red pepper, carrot and red onion with soy and ginger.


For desert I had some chia seed pudding made with hazelnut and almond rice milk and a tablespoon of agave syrup topped with a strawberry. I like this better than the vanilla version I made earlier in the week. The hazelnut and almond rice milk goes so well with the chia seeds.


I'm probably going to have a couple of plums as well before bed. I've been snacking on these every night for the last couple of days after I've posted but I'm not stressing about any snackiness as long as its just little plums I'm going for.

Drinks - water, green tea, decaf tea

Its my weigh in day tomorrow and I'm not sure what to expect, every four weeks I have a gain and then lose the week after which makes me think its connected to my monthly cycle. This should be my heavier week, so I'm expecting a gain. I'm not obessing over the weight thing, I just think it would be good for me to get a handle on how my body works for once! I've been looking back through the blog at what I've eaten the past week and how I've exercised and I have to say both have been very good. I'm out at the weekend so I won't be too worried if I end up hammering the red wine since I've been so healthy. I'll just have to make sure that it doesn't turn into an excuse to binge. I think that after my summer holiday in June I'm going to try and stop the weekly weigh in's and just weigh myself once a month as a check in to try and make me a bit more balanced in my approach.

Well I'm off to watch the politians fight it out in the UK's first ever live TV debate. Personally I think there all as useless as each other! Hope your all having a good week x

A couple of weeks ago a blog reader Andrea emailed me asking if I could do a post on some of the more un usual ingredients I feature on the blog. I often forget that back when I started reading blogs I had no idea what chia seeds or nutritional yeast were or where to get them so I thought this would be a great idea for a post.

I’m going to start with a list of a few items which Andrea asked about, with why and how I use them and where to find them:

Item: Non Dairy Milks – soy, rice, oat, coconut (kara brand) and almond – some of these also come in various flavours such as vanilla, chocolate, hazelnut and almond and also sweetened / unsweetened.

Why and how – I use non dairy milks as I like the taste better than normal milk and feel that they add more variety to my diet. I also try to avoid consuming too much dairy as I have concerns over the levels of antibiotics in cows milk and the treatment of the cows as part of the dairy industry. I like to rotate the kinds of non dairy milk I drink for variety but also so I don’t end up consuming too many soy products.

Where to find it – soy milk is pretty widely available at supermarkets. I find that my local Tesco also stock vanilla rice milk and kara coconut milk. For almond milk (which is expensive – try making your own – its easy!) and hazelnut and almond rice milk (my fave) try Waitrose or Holland and Barrat.

Item: Natural unrefined sweeteners – including agave syrup, brown rice syrup, barley malt, sweet freedom, maple syrup, honey, xylitol

Why and how – I use natural sweeteners in place of sugar for most things as I find that regular refined sugar raises my blood sugar levels too much leading to sugar highs and lows which can cause me to eat more and have energy slumps. I sweeten my coffee with agave syrup, add brown rice syrup to porridge etc. Brown rice syrup has a mellower taste than agave syrup which is very sweet. Xylitol is a low GI sugar alternative that I have used instead of caster sugar in baking. A lot of healthier baking recipes often use agave or brown rice syrup instead of sugar too. Basically where you would add sugar there is usually an unrefined natural alternative!

Where to find it – My local Sainsbury stocks agave syrup and Xylitol next to their sugars (not with the honey as I had thought!) They also stock maple syrup with the ice cream sauces. Brown rice syrup is a little harder for find. You can purchase it from Goodness Direct. I bought mine as part of a big iHerb order (more on iHerb later) Holland and Barrat also stock Sweet Freedom which is delicious!

Item – Tofu – plain firm tofu, silken tofu, flavoured tofu, braised tofu.

Why and how – I use tofu because I love it! Even before I became a vegetarian I ate tofu because it is a truly versatile ingredient. I could probably write a full post on tofu! I like tofu in stir fries, baked in a marinade in the oven scrambled, in salads or blended into a dessert or smoothie. Tofu is an excellent source of protein for veggies and even if your not veggie – some recipes that use tofu are delicious and cheaper, and arguably more environmentally friendly than meat.

Where to find it – I get Cauldron Foods plain firm tofu from my local Sainsbury’s refrigerated section, it seems pretty widely available. I also get the small packs of mori nu silken tofu at my local supermarket too. The Taifun organic and non GMO basil, smoked tofu and tofu sausages that are my absolute favourites only seem to be stocked at Waitrose and can also be found at Goodness Direct (along with a wider range of flavours). Holland and Barrat stock small tins of marigold braised tofu which I’m yet to try, but again I have heard good reviews. I have seen blocks of firm tofu in oriental supermarkets but I’m dubious about buying them as they don’t say that they do not contain genetically modified soy which I try to avoid.

Item – Maca powder

Why and how – I use maca powder in smoothies or sprinkle the powder on to sliced apples with cinnamon to add extra nutrition due to its benefits which include supporting the adrenal gland and helping the body to cope with stress, balancing hormones and providing energy – find out more here. It has a pleasant malty taste.

Where to find it – It is available online from UK sources including Detox your world and Viva Pure. It could be that your local independent health food shop sells it, I haven’t seen it in Holland and Barrat however.

Item – Chia Seeds

Why and how – I use chia seeds in porridge, smoothies, pancakes and to make a tasty chia seed pudding. Chia seeds are a great source of essential fatty acids, they absorb liquid so can help to make you feel fuller and add volume to foods. They also contain an impressive amount of protein, calcium and iron – find out more here. I like the texture and bulk they add to porridge as they absorb water and become an almost jelly like substance, hence why they make a nice pudding if soaked in a flavoured non dairy milk.

Where to find it – I bought mine from iHerb but it is also available from UK sources such as Viva Pure and Red 23 like the maca powder this could also be available at your local independent health food shop.

Item – Matcha Green Tea Powder

Why and how – I’m a huge fan of green tea in any of its guises but matcha green tea powder has to be the best. Its the ground up green tea leaves so your getting 100% of the actual tea leaf. It is full of antioxidants and some research has been done to show that it can support metabolism and weight loss. I love adding it to smoothies, juices or making a matcha latte with soy milk and agave.

Where to find it – I have bought my matcha from Teapigs. You can also purchase it from Vita Life

Item - Nutritional Yeast

Why and how – Nutritional yeast is a non active yeast product that has a cheesy taste and is high in protein and B vitamins. It is therefore used by veggies and vegans to add a cheesy taste to many recipes.

Where to find it – I bought my nutritional yeast as a powder from iHerb but in the future I would be looking to purchase the Engevita nutritional yeast in flake form from Goodness Direct.

So there’s a quick run down of a few of the more unusual ingredients I talk about here on the blog. Are there any other ingredients that you’ve seen me use or mention on the blog that you’d like to find out more about? Leave me a comment and I will make sure I cover them in Part 2!

I also thought it would be useful to give you a few links to some of the websites that I have came across that stock some of these kinds of ingredients:

• iHerb – a US based site which is excellent for sourcing a lot of the goodies you see on US blogs including Bob’s Red Mills products, Spirutein Protein Powder, Luna Bars, Clif Bars etc. The main downside with iHerb is the scary delivery charges and the tax that you have to pay once you receive the goods, I usually look at what I can get here in the UK, convert the cost from dollars to pounds and compare the whole price of the goods plus delivery to workout what provides best value. If you use code AGA105 you’ll receive a discount off your first order.
• Goodness Direct – Excellent UK based site with a wealth of healthy living foods and ingredients. They also stock some refrigerated items so they’re great for sourcing some of the vegan cheese alternatives and tofu etc.
• Viva Pure – I haven’t ordered from this site yet (but I have a wish list ready!) They seem to have a great range of mainly raw products.
• Detox Your World – Another site that I haven’t yet ordered from but seem to have a good stock of raw superfoods.
• Red 23 Organic Food – A fantastic range of specialist products including my beloved Sun Warrior protein powder!

Do you have any favourite online sources for more unusual ingredients and products that you’d also like to share?